J.D. from Harvard Law School

A.B. in History from Harvard College

Steptoe & Johnson LLP (D.C. and San Francisco)

Member of State Bar of California, D.C. and Maryland; Admitted in the Northern, Central, Eastern, and Southern Districts of California; Admitted in the United States Supreme Court; Admitted in the United States District Courts for D.C. and Maryland and the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, Sixth, Ninth, and Federal Circuits

theodore@braunhagey.com
(415) 599-0219
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Jeff was lead counsel for The Better Meat Company in bet-the-company defense of patent inventorship and trade secret misappropriation claims. A competitor in the alternative meat space, Emergy, Inc., claimed that BMC’s former CTO had stolen IP when he had worked with Emergy three years earlier, that Emergy’s co-founders were the real inventors of BMC’s patents, and that BMC’s business was built on Emergy trade secrets. With the litigation interfering with BMC’s business, Jeff developed a summary judgment strategy notwithstanding that the parties had not yet done fact or expert discovery. Three weeks after the hearing, the Court granted summary judgment on patent inventorship. The Court found that Emergy “offered no effective rebuttal” to BMC’s inventorship arguments, that Emergy was trying to avoid summary judgment through “sandbagging and shenanigans”, that the record “lead[s] the Court to doubt Emergy is pursuing its claims for a proper purpose in the first place. See Fed. R. Evid. 11(b)(1),” and that Emergy was at risk of an “award of costs and fees caused by unreasonable and vexatious actions” under “28 U.S.C. § 1927.” The case favorably settled two business days after the Court’s ruling under terms that ensure BMC’s ability to pursue and grow its business.

Better Meat Company v. Emergy, Inc. et al, 2:21-cv-02338-KJM-CKD (E.D. Cal.)

Opposing counsel: Finnegan

Jeff was lead counsel on a recent international, multi-jurisdictional trade secret dispute over molecular food technology. Jeff led a team of lawyers from three different firms across four separate cases in San Francisco, California, Seattle, Washington, and Munich, Germany. Jeff’s litigation strategy secured a favorable forum for the primary case, stayed and dismissed the opposing party’s counter-litigations and counterclaims, and obtained a favorable settlement for BHB’s client.  

Opposing counsel: Perkins Coie

Jeff was trial counsel for craft brewer Stone Brewing in its $56 million dollar trademark infringement jury verdict against MillerCoors’s Keystone beer for its adoption and use of Stone Brewing’s STONE® trademark. Jeff authored the damages case for Stone and overcame MillerCoors’s prior use defense during a three-week federal jury trial, leading to the fourth largest trademark infringement verdict in history. The judgment was recently affirmed by the Ninth Circuit. 

Stone Brewing Co. v. MillerCoors LLC, No. 18-cv-331 (S.D. Cal) and Stone Brewing Co., LLC v. Molson Coors Beverage Company USA LLC, No. 23-3142 (9th Cir. 2024)

Opposing counsel: Quinn Emanuel; WilmerHale; Crowell & Moring

Jeff represented Orion Telescopes & Binoculars, the last independent telescope brand and distributor in the United States in Sherman and Clayton Act litigation over the monopolization of the market for consumer telescopes. Jeff handled the damages case and obtained complete exclusion of one of the defendants’ damages experts and significant limitation on the testimony of the other, leading to a $55 million judgment after a five-week jury trial in the Northern District of California. The judgment was upheld by the Ninth Circuit.

Optronic Technologies, Inc., v. Ningbo Sunny Electronic Co., Ltd. et al (N.D. Cal.)

Opposing counsel:  Sheppard Mullin LLP

Jeff created and presented the defense-side damages case in a three-week, $600 million trade secret misappropriation jury trial against a foreign telecom manufacturer. Despite issuing verdict of liability, the jury awarded zero dollars in trade secret damages and less than one percent of the plaintiff’s requested total damages for breach of contract.

Opposing counsel: Hueston & Hennigan LLP

Jeff represented an investment fund and portfolio technology company in a $120 million, multi-jurisdictional trade secret, breach of contract, and fraud litigation against a competitor and former business partner over networking and artificial intelligence technology. Jeff negotiated and secured a favorable settlement on the eve of trial.

Opposing counsel: King & Spalding LLP; Fredrikson & Byron PA

Jeff represented BMG music in its seminal copyright infringement suit to hold Cox Communications liable for its high-speed internet subscribers’ online sharing of copyrighted music files. Jeff briefed, argued, and won the summary judgment motion that stripped Cox of its DMCA “safe harbor” defense, the first time a broadband provider had ever lost its DMCA “safe harbor”. After a two-week trial, BMG obtained a $25 million verdict.

BMG Rights Management (US) LLC v. Cox Communications, Inc., No. 14-cv-1611 (E.D. Va.)

Opposing counsel: Fenwick & West